I am useless
by Gura Kruor
Summary: Was it all just a dream, or maybe a vision? No, it was real. It all began when my legs stopped working, a woman's song called out to me, and a frightening man took me away from everything I knew. It is Hitomi's part of the "I am" series; after a car accident that tied her to a wheelchair she tought life was meaningless until ending up lost and alone in Gaea.
1. La Torre

**DISCLAIMER:** This is a non-profit fanfic, The Vision of Escaflowne is property of Shoji Kawamori and Sunrise, please support the official release.

 **TRIGGERS:** This story has mentions of depressive behaviour, hints of suicide thoughts, self harm and car accident references!

First of all, special thanks to **Ivory Byrd** (/u/723900) for helping me to come up with this idea and making its gorgeous cover! You should totally look at her tumblr (drkstars-art) and dA (drkstars) for lots of Dragonslayer's art, fanfiction and more!

If I had posted this two days before it could've been part of the first Escaflowne week of all time, sponsored by **luminescent-rebirths** at tumblr in their blog dedicated to it under the prompt of **Day 1: Girl on Gaea / Track and field**. More information about it can be found at escaflowne-week . tumblr info just erase the spaces between dots and the slash; I totally recommend you to check the whole blog if you're searching for fresh Escaflowne material!

This story belongs to the same universe as the other ones that have **I am** in the title; it starts way after the other two and you don't need to read them to understand it although it would be preferable. As I've said before, english is not my first language but spanish, and as I'm self taught lots of words might sound weird; sorry for the trouble. I had never written a depressed character before this fic but the idea was so tempting to try otherwise, I hope to not disappoint you or make you feel uncomfortable with this story.

Without further ado, I hope you to enjoy.

 **A fateful confession**

The sun was in its highest point but that didn't stop the coach to keep with his regime upon his students. As they prepared to another practice race the sound of cicadas invited them to pass their time under a three, after all it was summer and the best time to be out the running track. Instead of resting, they flexed their muscles and waited for the signal for them to start with their competition.

As the echo of the BB gun resonated all around the stadium, they started to run; it was the false shot so at this point around four were out of it. They needed to judge better the situation because in professional competitions there weren't second times. When the real time came, the few who weren't keen to start the first time now ran with the speed of a cheetah fighting with their rivals to reach the goal before them.

The ones who were observing the race got crazy screaming the name of their favourite one. The multitude became a chant of only one name...

"Amano, Amano, Amano!" they cheered the sprinter.

As their champion reached the goal with a triumphal lifting of arms, while breaking the ribbon of the goal in the process, he stopped on his tracks and waited for a minute to catch his breath. Surely this wasn't the most difficult test but they were practising literally for a lot of hours and under the scorching sun.

For a minute, Hitomi's world stopped its spin only for her to clench her fingers around the armrest of her chair. That would've been her, receiving the praise of her classmates, if not for that damned accident half a year ago, the one who took away her ability to walk and with that, her friends; the only one who stayed was Yukari. She even had to be held back a year, when the principal let her to study in 3rd year her grades were poor and for that reason she returned to the 2nd year.

That wasn't what was bothering her, she wasn't a really good student, her most prominent subject was English but relied more into her sports than in her grades, a passing average was enough for her mother because she had more hope in her promising career as an Olympic runner and her easiness with languages would help her if she had to compete in another country. She had never loved something as much as running in the track field and had been good at it since elementary school but only until highschool joined the club; Yukari followed her as the manger and all was too perfect to be truth.

" _Thinking of friends..._ " Three girls were charting quite cheerfully in the grades, drinking water and getting ready for the next race. When Hitomi joined the club they became friends, they looked happy, as if nothing had changed at all. She wanted to say hi to them, to ask them how they were doing in the nationals, to wish them luck in their entrance tests. Yet, she didn't want to do so; from her chair, she contemplated the concrete at the base of the stairs for a minute before the wind flipped her blue skirt up and obstructed her path of view.

By the time the wind caressed her short hair; her friend had already reached the top of the stairs and was looking at her friend with concern for a second to change her expression to one of cheerfulness as if it was natural.

"Sorry for the delay, Hitomi; I lost track of the time," said Yukari in an apologetically manner. "Oh my, look at your skirt! Thanks goodness there weren't boys near" she said, after smoothing it herself.

"Don't worry, I just came to see the practice for a while," the girl in question looked up to her friend with cold eyes.

"Let's go somewhere else," said Yukari while taking the push handle of her friend's wheelchair.

Oh how much she hated people moving her around, as if she were a doll or a groceries cart; she couldn't walk but wasn't dead... yet. She gave a last glance to her friends; they had already started to run as both were leaving. Yukari leaded her to the entrance of the school, they were heading home and she was updating her about how the new manager needed her past notes, most of it was ignored by the silent girl in the chair. She kept her head high using the inner part of her hand while her elbow rested in the armrest until a playful smile formed in her face, her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"You know that I don't like to wait, it will cost you dearly," she used the emergency break and turned her chair around to face her surprised friend.

Hitomi looked at her to the eye and crossed her arms, "A cheese cake of the new cafeteria is the price for wasting my time, take it or leave it," she used a faux angry voice before nodding to make it valid to herself.

"C'mon Hitomi, it wasn't on purpose," she pleaded, with both hands together but ended up agreeing to her friend's punishment and made plans for the weekend to visit the coffee parlour at Kamakura's shopping center.

Both left the school grounds and went to the train station, while riding in it Hitomi took a nap while her friend was listening music. Her consciousness drove her to a memory of her childhood, before her parents divorced and she was part of a happy family.

 _Hitomi was waiting the train in a Tokyo Station, she was at most four years old and was playing with the hand of her father. She looked at his clock, she had always liked it although little she knew about how to read it; the three sets of needles were appealing to her to the point that she could pass hours just waiting for each time they moved; but this time, they stopped as well as everyone around her._

 _A beautiful song was being played in the station and when the little girl turned to see where the tune came from, she saw a youngster with strange hair and tattoos; all his attire was foreign to her. He smiled at her when she asked him who he was, then her train arrived and as sudden as he appeared he vanished without a trace._

A mechanical voice made her awake; there had been an accident in another station so their train was going to be delayed for a while. Hitomi stirred in her chair and searched for the backpack in the rearward compartment of her backrest; she couldn't reach it without advancing, which was difficult taken the big amount of people in the aisle even if she was in a preferential place. After watching her dilemma, Yukari undid the ties of the bag and handed it to her friend.

Hitomi watched her with a side-glance before snatching the backpack from her hands a little angry; her friend had made one of the things she hated the most: remembering her that she wasn't self-sufficient. She searched for her water bottle, while Yukari played with her hair; it was a signal that she was nervous. When she finally found the item, drank for around two minutes to leave it completely empty, then she returned it to the bag and hung it from her shoulder to let it rest in her lap; it was like a routine for her lately, to wake up really thirsty even after naps.

After yawning she heard Yukari spoke: "You have been sleeping in classes lately, your homeroom teacher told me so," she wasn't reprimanding her, "are you nervous for the finals?"

"Of course not; I've been tired lately, really tried, do you think I am weird?" her previous anger was forgotten for her to start wondering on her own.

"I wonder why, I feel really drained, all my classmates are pretty energetic, I'm starting to feel old for being surrounded by kids," she said with a pseudo melodramatic voice but her friend was closely watching her.

"For that reason I sleep, and in my dreams, when nobody notices I disappear," her hands mimicked the action of an exploding serpentine ball, "but nothing changes, even if I am not around anymore nothing changes."

"I remember that when we were kids you read me the tarot cards once, have you tried to make a read on your own? I know that you swore to not do it again but-" her friend was interrupted by the train driver again and she was glad of it, her days as a fortune-teller were over for good. The accident in Yoyogi Station had been managed without incidents and both students were heading to their neighbourhoods.

Hitomi lived in an apartment building, when she was a child her house was two blocks far from Yukari's but as her mother income wasn't as high as her father's the small family of three —her mother, little brother and her— had to move to a smaller and further place. The two students were cheerfully talking in their way home, the house of her friend was left behind long ago because she was walking Hitomi to hers but a block before arriving she saw the stadium where she ran her first interschool race.

She wanted to leave it behind like her recent routine, it was like a taboo place for her, but in the matter of seconds every sound around her was silenced to give pass for the chirp of birds and a voice from the past returned to haunt her. A lonely bird was flying in the blue sky and in her mind eye Hitomi saw the track field as if she were in the middle of it and a cloaked figure stood in the other side of it.

"Is something wrong?" asked her friend, taking her out the trance.

"Somebody is calling me," said the girl in the chair more to herself, to state something that might be or not real; the voice of the woman seemed a little different but it was the same until it suddenly faded.

She opened the outer fence and drove inside until reaching the entrance stairs; the situation was so surreal, two years ago a judge was announcing her as the champion for the preliminaries; she could even hear his voice coming out from the speakers outside the track field. Her friend pressed the shoulder strap of her backpack, she knew that something wrong was going on with her; the sky was at this point as orange that both absorbed the colour and her faces looked almost golden.

"Hitomi," she stood in front of her to crouch and put her hands in her shoulders, she was now in her eye level and looked at her with concern.

Before she could lecture her, Hitomi spoke: "Stop worrying about me, you're bothering me, just leave me alone" her voice was cold and had a tinge of commanding anger, "Forget me".

Yukari couldn't believe her ears and looked at her friend's backpack resting in her lap, "I understand," she retired her own hands and walked slowly away from her.

"I can't stand you," said Hitomi with an angrier voice, to scare her and make her walk faster.

"Mother asked me to bring her the groceries for dinner," said Yukari to excuse herself while looking at her feet, "I'll see you tomorrow at school," her voice was starting to crack for containing her tears.

"Disappear from my sight!" she shouted from her chair, while looking to the concrete ground "I can't stand you," whispered behind her teeth while scratching her armrest.

"Disappear, I hate the people that hurts their friends," at this point, she was biting her lip, "Disappear," a trickle of her blood was now dripping in the corner of her mouth, "Somebody..." she looked at the sky before her thoughts were interrupted by and unknown voice.

"That's right, all must disappear," his voice was deep and had an eloquent tone.

She was surprised and looked at her right shoulder when the wind blew in her direction, his voice seemed to come from inside the stadium and he looked so real in her mind eye.

"Leave this sad world, and all that's in it, disappear," he sounded angry and at the same time, sad.

Without noticing when or how, Hitomi was now in the middle of the track field watching this man in a close distance. Contrary to the time she saw the youngster with strange appearance, all seemed to move faster than normal around her, the pace of the clouds was too quick to track and made the most strange shadows in the ground. Suddenly, the image of her first race came to her mind, three girls from other schools were running alongside her; ah how good did the wind felt that day when it caressed her short hair before crossing the goal line.

"You, who share the same wish as me" continued the man, "Come to my distant land, and join me, you're the chosen one," his voice sounded so convincing.

"Are you talking about me?" asked Hitomi, with an incredulous voice.

"You, the Goddess of the Wings," he started to walk towards her, "you must come to my land and consummate your destiny," his voice was so luring to ignore but his face was still far from her sight.

"Come to my world, Gaea" he extended his hand as if inviting her to take it and run away with him, far way from her tragedy.

Suddenly, the wind started to blow so high that nothing could be heard through it and the sky darkened in less than a second; the man in front of her seemed tranquil until the wind changed its curse and he vanished in front of her after looking startled. The stadium's ground became round and the sky had now a greenish colour that surrounded the most incredible thing she had seen in all her life.

"Is that Earth?" the mirage was akin to the photograph she was accustomed to see in books, " _Is this a dream, or maybe a vision?_ " as a child she had all kind of strange visions until puberty, when they ceased.

" _No, this is real,_ " suddenly, water started to sprout from the ground and was surrounding her, it quickly covered her waist although she couldn't feel it until it reached her armrests, " _My wish has been granted!_ "

The sky glowed blue and move itself in round waves, as if a rock had fallen into a pond; a whistle was heard when it happened and the mirage of Earth above her was almost fading when the water covered her to the shoulders. She felt how the water engulfed her and carried her on its whim. She couldn't feel her chair, it must've been taken away from her by the flow; she should be scared and yet she wasn't, it felt as natural as breathing when she sunk as a rock into the darkness.

Hitomi felt heavy and wanted to left herself drown to sleep forever until, instead of falling, she was now ascending in a pillar of light that came up from down her, it was warm and made possible for her to breath but it faded and followed its way to the sky. As a reflex movement, she propelled herself with her arms and searched the surface of the water, too desperate to breathe to note that her legs were moving on their own as death was near her.

Her few swimming classes were worth their pay and time invested in them when she saw the starry sky and took a breath of fresh air that her lungs thanked. With all her might she swam to the shore of that water body and using her arms and legs she hold herself to puke the few contents of her stomach before starting to cough violently.

She had almost died by drowning and now was resting on a shore in the middle of nowhere while looking at the sky, where the clouds forecasted a forthcoming rain. Hitomi couldn't believe it, she totally felt like dreaming, all happened too unexpectedly to be truth. Taken the previous facts, she assumed that she was actually dozing in the entrance of the stadium or even still aboard the train, it had happened before, for her to lost the track of reality while sleeping and surely Yukari was droving her home.

Her mocking laugh echoed in the forest as the girl jumped in her spot while hugging herself, only in the dream world she could be using her legs again. She saw her backpack float in the water but paid no mind to it, the damned bag could go to hell for all she knew because it was all just a dream!

She started to run as fast as she could, to the closest big rock the moonlight let her see; Hitomi was so utterly happy in that moment to notice that she was no longer alone in that lake shore but before she could notice it, the girl tripped over a small rock and fell to her left side. She used her hands to cushion the fall and scrapped her knee; she emitted a hurt cry and immediately curled up to look after the wound.

"This hurts!" she was in pain, sure, but was glad to feel so; after her accident she had pinched her legs with needles in search of any kind of signal of it, something that could give her hope but now it have her another kind of thought: **This was no dream, it was real**!

She noticed the reality of her situation on time; if she had delayed a second the pair of eyes that were now watching her behind the shrubbery was going to be of no importance to her. An animal she had never saw before was now baring its teeth before jumping at her with menacing claws before it. She didn't have to think it twice to rush away from the predator; it didn't matter the direction she just had to run to the other side.

Hitomi ran and ran until her legs screamed for mercy; apparently her muscles weren't accustomed to the stress of the exhausting task. She was sweating like a swine and her white uniform and blue skirt were now marred for the dirt of the plants she passed close to, her heart was beating like crazy to the point that she couldn't hear nothing but her blood crowding in her ears; she fell when one of her feet was stuck by a root and saved her from falling to her death. She was close to the edge of a precipice and had to leave her shoe behind to climb the closest three for her life depended on it, she had no other choice and didn't new if that unknown beast was going to follow her up.

Fortunately, the animal didn't saw that it was running out of ground and couldn't stop in time to prevent its fall to the void. Hitomi couldn't hear when it hit the bottom for she was more interested in how the Earth was now in the middle of the sky, peering behind the moon. She wasn't at home anymore.

* * *

Well, I am short of words and surely all this mess sounded better in my head than in actual words; with this one I learned more about the language and how the wording could totally change the vibe of a scene. I don't know when will this be updated but stay tuned!

 **Myth and legend ride with you**


	2. Il Fusco

**DISCLAIMER:** This is a non-profit fanfic, The Vision of Escaflowne is property of Shoji Kawamori and Sunrise, please support the official release.

 **TRIGGERS:** This story has mentions of depressive behaviour, hints of suicide thoughts, self harm and car accident references!

First of all, special thanks to **Ivory Byrd** (/u/723900) for helping me to come up with this idea (being an unnoficial beta and partner of crime) and making its gorgeous cover! You should totally look at her tumblr (drkstars-art) and dA (drkstars) for lots of Dragonslayer's art, fanfiction and more!

This story belongs to the same universe as the other ones that have **I am** in the title; it starts way after the other two and you don't need to read them to understand it although it would be preferable. As I've said before, english is not my first language but spanish, and as I'm self taught lots of words might sound weird; sorry for the trouble. I had never written a depressed character before this fic but the idea was so tempting to try otherwise, I hope to not disappoint you or make you feel uncomfortable with this story.

Without further ado, I hope you to enjoy!

 **The girl from the Mystic Moon** **I**

After her accident, Hitomi became a daydreamer; she already was, since being a kid, but had stopped since middle school. Now, it had become a way to get out from her miserable life; she had thought about scenarios where she was never born, scenarios where she was born in other family or even as an animal. None of these dreams could compare themselves with the reality she was living now.

Being alone, in an unknown forest, in the middle of nowhere thanks to a shady creepy man, wasn't her idea about how to pass the evening. Hell, it wasn't even close to her usual fantasies; but she had just escaped from a beast that wanted her as its dinner and the best part: she was walking now; she had even ran for her life not even ten minutes ago.

It was quite curious, how fate liked to play with her; she should be really happy about it, like before, but the light of the moon ─if that's how the round rock with an eye in it was acting as in this weird place─ reminded her that she had more important matters. She hadn't been in a forest since elementary school, neither had been in such a predicament; the little she knew about surviving in the wilds was based only on educative television shows. The wind flew and cold suddenly returned to Hitomi's body, her uniform was still soaked and a thunder predicted a big storm, she hadn't noticed it before for the warmth provoked by her race.

She had to get to the ground quickly, she was no scientist but trees and storms didn't mix quite well; from her spot, she could see her discarded shoe. Hitomi unclimbed and landed as silently as she could; the presence of another predator was possible and she wasn't going to take risks at this point. She took the shoe ─that was still bellow a root─ and fortunately, it still worked for its purpose; before that day they had just been a mere decorative accessory, so they were almost new.

She put her shoe on, and tried to search for a good hiding place; it felt almost surreal, not even an hour ago she was more interested in how her classes were boring and now about preventing being stuck by lightning or getting stung by a poisonous snake. Ah, how she missed to be in the track team, that way she would have a spar set of clothes inside her bag-

 _Wait... my bag! How could I have forgotten about it?! My_ _pager_ _is inside; I can try to ask for help._ She knew that the answer was: Because I was too occupied celebrating to get my priorities straight, but choose not to think about it. She was tired of just wondering and thinking, she had to do something about it, and the firs step was to return to the very same place she had come from: the lake.

It wasn't difficult to find her goal; after all, she had left a clear trail of broken branches and foot prints that, even with the little light of the woods, were easily to see. She just had to return in her steps and hope for the device to not be screwed thanks to the big amount of water it was probably sunken in. The fact that it was almost impossible for its signal to be actually active in a place out of Earth wasn't noticed by the girl for the moment; having a goal helped her to not crumble into a pile of tears.

After some minutes, she reached the lake shore and it took her less to find her backpack floating, its strap was tangled in the branch of a fallen tree. She weighted her possibilities: if she had to make a bet, the log was already half rotten, so climbing it was out of question; the use of a long branch was the best option, she just had to find one and try to reach for her bag. She passed around twenty, cold, minutes, shaking until she got a good branch and carefully untangled the strap.

Once she had her bag, Hitomi proceeded to sort all the items; fortunately, they weren't drenched, save for her notebooks all was perfectly dry. If only most of the contents were, in fact, books and notebooks, she would have something to dry herself. The first she searched for was the most useless for her, she tried to send a message to her mother but it never got a response; it was almost funny, it was a gift from Yukari with the purpose of sending a message if she had troubles. It had been with her for almost a year and never used it, but kept its battery charged for some reason; now that she, in fact, needed help the device choose to be utterly useless.

She stayed there, sitting with her legs under herself, motionless for a minute that felt like an hour; her shoulders were curved, and her head tilted down so her bangs were covering her eyes. The end of her lips curved up a little, just for a tiny moment, before a sardonic laugh was heard in the forest. That's what she did in moments of shock: laugh at herself for being so stupid; she laughed at her own bad luck and for holding a small hope in her heart. After her accident, she made a silent promise to never host hope because that way, instead of being disappointed if her expectations were left down she'd be happy when good stuff happened to her.

Her beeper fell from her hand and its sound made her remember where she was, and that made her realise how urgent was her need to find shelter, searching for help was more of a secondary task she had choose to give more priority. She had been chattering her teeth unconsciously; with desperation, she observed around while hugging herself; her eyes were at this point accustomed to the shade of the light with which the forest was illuminated, but even with that advantage she couldn't see a cave or something of the sorts.

Like an automaton, Hitomi turned down her bag and returned its contents inside of it before rising and carry it as if she were going to school again. Her hands were clenching tightly to the strap, in a way to find some security and not lose it again; as if it were a lifesaver and the last proof of what was real.

With clumsy steps, she walked around the lake's shore to find no place where to shelter herself during the impending storm. The more she walked, the more she became conscious about small details she hasn't noticed before; for instance, there was a plethora of night sounds probably from insects and birds, although she wasn't that sure because apparently here animals were somewhat different than the ones she was familiar with. At this point, the wind had started to dry her clothes, which was kind of relieving.

 _What should I do? I can_ _'t_ _ask for help, there is nobody nearby and I_ _am_ _freezing to death!_ She tried to be reasonable, but it was quite difficult when all the distractions in the environment and the possibility of risking her own health were near dangers. From what she gathered about the place, it was a plain but was possibly some kilometers above the sea level, after all there was a cliff. That meant that she could be in a mountain... and she almost wanted to slap herself for not thinking about it before.

She decided to return to the cliff, with the intention to see from a higher place; she didn't choose another random tree because it was quite possible for them to be inhabited by other animals that wouldn't like her to meddle in their homes. One good feature of Hitomi is how practical she is; of course she has her moments of stupidity, but after noticing her priorities she does her best to achieve them. So she returned in the same way she had the first time, it wasn't as if another animal or person had erased her tracks; and started to climb again the tree.

Now that the adrenaline rush had faded, it wasn't as easy as before; she could swear that her nails were now torn but didn't care that much, she just stopped from time to time to literally lick her wounds. After scratching her knees and elbows a few times, Hitomi reached the most stable branch of the tree and sat there, struggling to not fall in the process. The first time had been almost like a fluke that she hadn't fallen; probably one of those moments in which the brain was making a really big effort to keep a body alive almost by instinct.

From that place, keeping herself steady with one hand, she put the other in her brow as if it helped her to see at a further distance; she narrowed her eyes and carefully searched for anything that could indicate her the existence of a nearby place with people. In a city he could expect the particular yellow, blue and red of the electrical lights, to shine in the distance, but probably in the woods the best was to search smoke from chimneys an the orange from campfires and candles. She had never stayed in the woods, but the image she was expecting to see was that she'd seen in the Wild West movie pictures; a town in the middle of the forest, with everybody living in wood buildings.

But what she saw was different, in a new and interesting way; Hitomi saw smoke coming out of chimneys, sure, but many blue lights in, what she deduced it was, the inner parts of the buildings. From the distance she couldn't tell if these were wood houses, but it was a start! At least she had seen signals of human life in the vicinity, now all she had to think was how to get there without injury.

Excitement filled her heart, that town meant to her a possibility to return home and have shelter; but as soon as it was ignited, the shadow of reason kept her in place, with her feet figuratively in the ground. She didn't even knew how far it was, and even that information was useless because she didn't even knew how to get there. She hadn't seen any road that would take her there, neither direction signs such as the ones seen in the highways nor cars; the best she could do was to trust her inner compass to take her there without getting lost in another part of the forest.

She had to think carefully and be calm, but the sound of a thunder made her remember that she didn't even had the time to formulate a plan. From her small scouting of the lake she had seen a small path, in the contrary side from where she was now but it seemed slippery; it had mud and the rocks seen more of a treat than an anchoring point. If she slides, there was the possibility of her ending up dead for hitting her head with a rock; she needed something strong enough to keep her in the ground, she weighted her options and ended up choosing to use a branch as a walking stick.

Securing the strap of her bag, she ended up with it quite closely to her back; she couldn't risk it as a potential threat. She thought that her luggage was prone to end up attached to a lose branch and even working as her own death trap if she encountered another animal; it could pull her with the bag and all was over. Yet she couldn't just leave it there; what if her mother actually answered the message of her pager? What if she needed a pad? The bag had few precious ─and useful─ items, but they were hers and she didn't want to give them up.

She walked on the road, or what could be called one; for its inclination, it was quite possible for it to be an abandoned man made path and mostly used by animals. The lack of maintenance forced her to use the branch more than she had expected, for that reason she was walking a little slow, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Her legs were trembling right now; her shoes weren't made for long walks but as ornaments and they weren't working to keep her steps steady, the tip of her left shoe was already a little detached from the sole and the right one was going to follow the same path soon.

Hitomi couldn't tell how much time she had been walking; the only thing she knew was that by walking in a general direction to the left she'd reach the town and was internally praying to not get into another trouble. But, apparently, that got the opposite effect because at that very moment, as if she had summoned it, the storm began as a looming curtain of water. Those were bad news, and not for the water now soaking her again but for the possibility of it to make more slippery the road; but she kept going and, surprisingly enough, she didn't slipped and was getting closer to the base of the mountain!

But it was too soon to sing victory because, unfortunately, she stepped on a loose rock and fell to her doom; it happened so fast, that she didn't had the time to anchor herself properly with the walking stick, it ended up broken with one part still stuck in the mud and the other going with her to the foothills or worse: to a bigger rock. With all her might, Hitomi spun on her axis and tried to nail her fingers into the mud, in a desperate attempt for her to stop the fall; but it was in vane. Instead, she got two wounded fingers; at this point she didn't even care if they were broken ─which was probably the case─, she was going to die when she reached that rock in the bottom.

"I don't want to die!" was the last she said, before landing next to the rock by mere centimeters and hitting her head with a low branch.

Hitomi lay there for a while, without moving and with blood dripping from her head; the rain was now a blessing, without it she'd be surrounded by animals in a matter of minutes. Her breathing was uneven but steady; her clothes were now mere rags and were dirtied by a mix of mud and blood, the same was with her hair. The last she saw, before slipping into unconsciousness, was a big creature approaching to her; she wanted to move but couldn't even try, she had lost control of her body and closed her eyes.

That's what the person on the horse ─if it could be called like that said animal─ found when they got near a suspicious shape in the ground; it was by accident, but the beast had better night vision than its rider and reacted to the fallen girl. A small but sturdy individual, wearing a brown outfit that made a set with their hat and big boots, dismounted and with the base of the _horse whip_ inspected who was there.

They happened to be a young girl, wounded and probably dead; the rider got closer to her and checked her breathing; fortunately she was alive, but they didn't knew for how much time she'd be. Without ease, they carried her to the back of the animal after ordering it to lower itself. They didn't wanted to overcharge the beast but, in her state it was probably that the girl would fall if she didn't had assistance, so the rider mounted again and followed their way; it was almost a miracle that the bag hadn't been broken after the fall, so she still had it in her back. The stranger took their cloak and covered her from the rain; it was going to be a long way to the closest town.

«Hitomi was in a hospital bed, covered by clean blue blankets; the sunlight bathed her face but, for some reason, she was cold as the rail bed that helped her to not fall to the floor. A rhythmic beep was all what was heard in the room, they had already taken the breathing machine last night; she was out of danger now. Or that's what she thought at the moment; she still felt like a needle cushion thanks to the metal inside her flesh, it made the very action of moving an arm painful.

She heard a knock in the door but it was just a mere formality, they didn't wait for her invitation to the room and just entered to it. »

Hitomi opened her eyes and found a brown above her instead of plain white; she breathed and smelled warmth and not the sterile odor of medicines. She was in a hard bed, covered by gray raspy linens and some furs; when turning her head she focused a little more on her surroundings and noticed to be inside a cottage. All the furniture was made out of wood, the same could be said of the walls; the house was illuminated by blue lights and kept warm with the fire of a chimney with a cauldron on it. She sat there, for a moment, noticing some bandages in her arms, fingers and head; the pain in her nails was that had woke her so she let out a cry of hurt the moment it got to her.

"I see that you are awake," said a person she hadn't noticed until now, from the looks she'd bet them to be an old lady, but she wasn't sure.

What they said didn't give her a clue; actually, she didn't understand a word of what that person had said, so she just stared at her quizzically. She looked around her fifties, and wore a brown attire consisting on trousers, a long sleeved shirt and slacks; her graying hair was tied into a bun and still had some black streaks. Her face had european features, or that's what she thought; her skin was light but not that much, and her eyes were a shade of brown lighter than her clothes. The old woman probably had an average appearance during her youth and looked quite strong; some of her teeth were missing and replaced by golden ones.

The sound of the cauldron interrupted them so the old lady walked to the chimney and, with a scoop poured something into a bowl; then walked towards her and offered its contents.

"Where am I?" she gave it a try, it was clear that she was trying to feed her but she needed some answers first; besides, the pain in her fingers was terrible and was starting to be scared. Her host had tried to emulate what she said but poorly, almost trying to understand it just by copying her.

"Look, I don't understand what the heck you are saying but eat; you need to warm up," she tried to give her the bowl but the girl cowered a little, it was logical in a 'don't eat candies from strangers' way, so the old lady drank a spoonful of the soup and then offered it to the girl again.

Hitomi stared at the old lady and choose to eat, she took the bowl with the hand that hurt and the spoon with the other; she hadn't even noticed how hungry she was until tasting the soup, it was similar to a potato cream soup from the texture to the flavor, even the smell. In the meanwhile, the old lady decided to be a chatterbox that only spoke in a weird language. She had heard many languages thanks to foreign movies yet, this was something she had never heard before.

"Guillermina," said the old lady while pointing at herself many times and saying it again; Hitomi understood that she was asking her name, so she answered.

"Kanzaki Hitomi," and did the same process, the woman nodded.

"Kanzaki Hitomi," she tried to accustom to the name, "Kanzaki".

Hitomi denied with her head and corrected her, by this point the woman had understood that her name was the second word and the first one was probably a title or even her last name. The girl wanted to face palm, if her host looked as a western it was possible for her to not know about japanese names' rules.

 _But well, what was I expecting? I'm not in Earth anymore; only god knows where I am and what this person is saying to me. I'll keep silent; probably she already noticed that I can't understand her._ It was quite interesting, the only time she had spoken with a foreigner was during a school trip, they had gone to Sapporo and a man in his forties had asked her homeroom teacher something she couldn't understand. In the end, they used their hands to keep a conversation and the man left.

As she was thinking about it, some of the soup fell from her bowl to her shirt; it was in that moment that she noticed something important: those weren't her clothes. In a matter of seconds she started to guess where they were and what had happened to them, she tried to ask the old woman but it was useless. She choose to signal her clothes and move her hands, indicating around the room, probably that would give the right signal; surprisingly enough, it worked, but not in the way she was expecting.

 _Why is this with me?!_ Around her neck, there was a pink pendant hanging from a golden and thin chain.

She touched it, to proof herself it was real and it was genuine; it was her late maternal grandmother's pendant, the one she gave her in her seventh birthday. She had stopped to wear it a year ago, after her accident, she choose to stop believing in fate, destiny and the like; the stuff she had held dear until her last breath and told her to treasure.

 _It was a coincidence, only that; she probably thought it was expensive and that I'd ask for it at some point._ She reasoned, her actual situation was more important than some old trinket.

"Youngsters and their clothes, if I didn't knew the language I'd said you're from Egzardia," she got up and walked to a corner of the house, towards a basket, "those are worse than rags, your skirt actually doesn't cover you at all!" she snorted while showing her the dirty clothes.

"Well, as we can't understand each other the best is for you to sleep, I'll know what to do with you in the morning," the woman kicked out her boots, put her bowl in a table, extinguished the blue light of the lamp ─probably powered by gas─ and tucked in the bed. Hitomi froze for a second; she hadn't shared her bed since being a kid but, after finishing her meal and putting the bowl in the same table, she covered herself with the blanket and the furs to finally drift into slumber once again.

* * *

You might be asking yourselves: whoa! She updated a fic in less than a year! Is this Christmas or what? Well, I must tell you that I'm bad at having inspiration most of the time (the woes of ADHD!) but, thanks to my friend **drkstars-art** I actually had the imperious need to write this chapter.

Most of the story is already planned, not just as vague concepts but as in actual summaries of the chapters! I just need to figure out around four of them; curiously, I already know the end and what happens in half of the story perfectly but, as I reached the middle I stuck and jumped to the final parts. Don't worry, I will have them figured out before I reach them ('cause, it could possibly take me years!). Besides, I'll be graduating in January or February of 2017, so don't expect me to be pretty active before that, sorry.

Myth and legend ride with you


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